U R Grounded

Teenagers can be so selfish. Does it never occur to them that if Halloween falls on a Saturday night that one of you could be spending the night with a friend & the Other could be out at a party if she Didn't Have An F in German + D's in math & science and when I went searching for any excuse on the online grade book found that she didn't turn her math work in on Friday and is starting this quarter with an F already.....that me and their father might have an evening Alone! But No.

This morning I listened to 3 hours of whining and pitiful excuses and gave my responsibility talk. Now she's out front trying to lure children to the house and give away the Nestle crunch bars, Dads playing playstation football, & I am doing this.

Her Dad came home from a morning of surfing while I did laundry. He gave her a lecture too. And a pretty good one. He told her he was the freedom bank and her payments were keeping up with responsibilities but she was defaulting on her loan, and that until she was caught up on payments, freedom was in Repo.

Then he told her she could have her phone back and maybe her boyfriend could come by for a little while this evening. So yeah, he's out there giving out candy too.

Who is really grounded here?

Oh Good Lord!

I was just sitting here and being bored because I couldn't think of anything else to decorate my site with much less say so I hit the next blog button just see what was there and I apparently morphed into the other side of the world cause there were a few unreadable blogs followed by what looked like a russian porn blog. Is there some poor russian guy out there looking for hot chicks and coming upon my middle aged mom blog instead? Ew! That's kinda creepy.

Who ate all the Baby Ruth bars?

Not that it really matters. About once every 2 or 3 years some determined child actually comes all the way to the end of the road & up my slightly longer than average driveway. They are missing out because I buy great candy. At 9:30 I declare Trick or Treat over & the candy is mine. The last child was year before last &  he informed me my house was scary..... It wasn't decorated. (My yard is dark & has a lot of big trees) I do have a cute little wooden sign with a cat on it for the door but I don't know where it is. It hardly feels like Halloween. Littlest actually sewed her own costume this year. It was in the 80's & muggy today. There is not a  legitimate red or yellow leaf for I would guess a hundred miles. My geography is bad so it may just seem like a hundred miles. I guess I'm a little down today. Trying to figure out how the party rental store gave me a quote and I downsized a bit and called back and got a higher quote. It's report card day so I had to ground Middlest  and that's a shame cause she had plans and I really do hate for her to miss them, but she had plenty of warning as well. Oh well, we still have  some Nestle Crunch!
Maybe I ate all the Baby Ruths.

Who's Raising You?

The other day I took my 14 year old to the doctor for a check-up. The nurse handed her the paper gown and left for her to change. My youngest sighed, gave me the I hate this and them and you look, pulled off her shirt, flung it across the room into my lap ,waited her perfect timing moment and announced  "What....no one's  throwing dollar bills ?"
I have to admit the kid cracks me up but what on earth happened to all my careful censoring over the years. Everything on my TV over PG 13 is still blocked. As my darlings tell me," we learned it at school you might as well give up". Well I won't do that but I guess I will have to unblock comedy central some day so that I can watch my child perform.

I can hardly wait!

Splat!

Yeah...that would be my brain exploding..... figuratively of course......carry on.....

A Loaf of Stress, A Container of Worry and a Stick of Panic

Remember that little grocery list cartoon from Sesame Street, A loaf of bread a container of milk and a stick of butter?  Ingrained in my brain from childhood whenever I am listing "to do" in my head I find myself finishing off with that. I had to update it though. Within the next 2 months I have to arrange, prepare for & pay for:  My middle girl going to homecoming, My oldest getting married and of course the holidays. I realize I have been coming to my blog to escape the lists. But then I have the list of things I want to write about. For someone who obsessively worries about the  air in my tires whenever I'm in the car and whether the gates are closed and my dogs in whenever I hear barking. This is a bit much. I had to stop watching the news altogether.But here are my worries.

I Hate You Too Sweetheart

From the age of 14 to 16 my oldest daughter was totally out of control. From then till she was around 18 there was a change. She was still wild but had separated herself from the really bad people she had been around. We began to have a real relationship with her again not an ongoing horror story. During the really bad years I Hate You was as blase as pass the salt compared to other things she said. When things started to improve she still wanted to have her way but get the benefits of being a teenager, and if we didn't go along with her she would get annoyed & out would come.. I Hate You. I would just quietly answer, I know...but I Love You. One evening as she was leaving she was pestering me for something and I had said no. I Hate You popped out. I guess she was gaining maturity and knew my denial was reasonable because as I was preparing to answer.. I know but I love you, I realized there was a slightly different tone to her voice and instantly the words popped out of me....in a very loving voice....I know, I Hate You Too Sweetheart. She grinned from ear to ear, her eyes lit up, and she answered, "Good" I'm leaving now.  This became a regular exchange of endearment with her. When she was being difficult but knew it she would use it, and even her boyfriend and her childhood friend  caught on. But the feeling I had the first time stayed with me. The child who wouldn't say I Love You had found a way. And to this day our mutual "hate" has stayed strong.

Just starting to get the hang of it.

I'm trying out a new font size. I dared to go to the Updated Editor so I could do that drop thing & realized my spell check had disappeared. I can never remember how to spell disapeared so hopefully I have spelled dissapeared right the 1st time. Maybe it's still here somewhere & I will find it again.  I got up my nerve to add some of the blogs I like to a list on my blog & now I am waiting and hoping the people won't notice & read my blog & then tell me they don't like me, remove them immediately. If you check back & have statcounter or something similiar Yes I am the one who has been frenetically going back and forth to your site trying to make sure I'm doing this right and getting an idea of how things are done and hopefully not committing some dreadful blogging faux pas. Just let me know.

Back Streets Not Just Back, Now They're Immortal!

If you need a chuckle!
Check out the Back Street Boys new video Straight Through My Heart.
My girls just came running to me in hysterical laughter  & dragged me in the room to watch it. It's almost as embarrassing as your Dad busting into a break dance at your 16th birthday party. At least  they should get credit for still fitting into what looks like the same outfits they wore when they were 20.

The Blogosphere ( Or I'm such a dork)

My polish is chipped
My roots are growing
And though I ignore it
My waist is showing
Signs of all the cookies I ate
While staying up & reading late.
The laundries not done
The whole house is messed
It's quarter till noon
And I'm still not dressed
My car's out of gas
And it needs a dusting
The yard work tools
are busily rusting
I don't have no friends
Can't find any followers
Among all the other
Blogging wallowers
Maybe someday, interest will spark
I won't be alone
In the internet dark
For now I keep typing
And thinking up stuff
To blab on my family
Without being too rough
I think they are calling
 But don't really hear
I'm lost somewhere
In the blogoshere.



© 2009 All Rights Reserved

Hug your babies, even if they are bigger than you!

I have a child (middlest) who is 4 inches taller than me. She also is my most affectionate. I will be cooking dinner & suddenly feel long arms drape across my shoulders & a chin resting on my head, dead weight outweighing me by about 10 lbs. On the couch watching TV she will stretch out alongside & snuggle her head on my shoulder & wrap her arms around my waist. Reading she will sit opposite & rest her legs on top of mine. She will climb into bed & watch a movie insisting on sharing the pillow. Fact 1: I usually cannot breathe. Fact 2: I will die of suffocation before I move. She is 16 years old. And this is a precious gift.

She Said What!

Three times I have been secretly tickled at my kids for being awful!

My daughters tend to be very quiet, especially away from home. The following are 3 of my favorite examples of moments they snapped. And also surprised me into not knowing what to think, or do, except laugh to myself.

A Little Background Music

As this is a brand new blog and no one knows about it yet I thought I would explain a little about who I am writing about. We got married when I was 20 my husband 22. One of the things we agreed upon was that we didn't want kids. Seven months later God had other plans for us. And Thank Him he did. It's 23 years later & we are counting down to finished products & our second childhood.

There Are No Cheerleaders Here

My husband and I sometimes joke that we have the answer for genetic engineering. If you add 2 idiots it = 1 genius .But what kind of genius? The bullheaded, underachieving only learn it if they want to kind of course. I played supermom. We did years of softball, gymnastics, scouts, & music lessons. We read out loud, knew the teachers, checked homework, fundraised, and volunteered. Attended a mainstream church, talked about values, self worth & don’t do drugs. We served vegetables. At the same time I just was never part of the clique and neither are my daughters. In nature verses nurture I have found nature is what wins. While nurturing an environment of responsibility, goals & values I have also encouraged individuality, creative expression, & being non judgmental. These traits are apparently oil & water in high school.